Malchom's Woods: Author's Commentaries
Commentaries on Malchom's Woods. On Joshua's past Joshua Malchom. The main character of the story, and the force behind the novel. Although he is the main character, he is overshadowed by Ember, who is, in fact, the secondary drive, and character. However, Mr. Malchom is the most detailed, and impressive thing about the story, in my opinion. But some may ask, who is he? And where did he come from? His past is shadowed, but not because of his past being interesting. Actually, his past is not much more interesting than the life of a middle-class American. He was neither rich, nor pore. He wasn't born a prodigy, but born, and raised as a person, who's life wasn't too exiting(except for Joshua). He was born on 3/14/87, to Arianna Graywood Malchom, and Richard Elmer Malchom. The latter of which, was Ian Malcolm's cousin. The two had lived in Glen Rose for many years, long before the incident on Nublar. The obviously coincidental setting was just that: a coincidence. His parent's are never seen, or even mentioned in the novel in any way. His mother sadly died of a serious case of the flu when he was seventeen, and his father slowly slipped into Alzheimer's disease when he was nineteen, and died soon after. The only close family he had left was his uncle, Ian Malcolm, and his cousin, Kelly Malcolm. During the rest of the time since his father's death, and the BX evacuation, Joshua worked at two jobs. The first being at a gas station, where he got paid little. The second was the better, for he worked as a mechanic, and was paid a good amount. Josh was paid enough to buy a house in the middle of Glen Rose. His life was the usual, nothing as exciting as his uncle's and nephew's. He lived alone, and never married, but did have one interest. A young woman by the name of Chelsie Mayfield, who he dated for a year. They seemed to be a match, but tragedy struck, and she died in a car crash. Joshua was never severely damaged by these deaths, but the reason he was mentally unstable while in post-BX Texas, was because of him being isolated in Glen Rose's woods(See: On Joshua's Character). Joshua's life is a dull, but still tragic one. Yet he does not dwell on his past, and always looks toward the future. On The Virus BX When we first learn about BX, it is in chapter three. Where Roland Tembo kills a Carnotaurus, that has a non-scaly arm. Then in the end of the same chapter, Joshua gives a little info on the disease. But we still didn't understand it. Later on, we learn that Wu created it. In chapter ten, we come across a abomination that is tied to BX. It is a Spinosaurus that has horns, a armored neck, and patches of alien skin. This animal is a good example of BX, and I will use it to explain... BX means, Biological Paraxenos. Literally, "Freakish Life". The Virus is unique, because it does something a Virus shouldn't. It enters a cell, inserts it's RNA, and then, takes some DNA from the cell it attacks. Then, it moves on to the next cell, and does the same. By doing this, it eventually is spread to another life form, and injects RNA, and another life form's DNA. By some strange process, the Virus causes the cells of the animal to die, and be replaced by the other host's cells. The horns on the Spinosaur's face, where from a Trike, and the armor, a Ankylosaur. The little Virus horde inside the other host's cells, also take DNA, and destroy the cell, and go on to spread the disease. So BX is a Virus, which produces it's own cells, by stealing the cells from other life forms. The rotting parts of the Dinosaur, are the cells being killed, while the other alien cells were replacing. The final detail on BX, is that it can cause a very fast, or slowly painful death. You see, if you were to have BX in your heart, the Virus would eat a hole in it, and you would die from internal bleeding. Well, the Virus takes time, and couldn't stop the hole it formed fast enough, like a scab would. So, you die before you are changed. The final thing to note, is that spreads through excrement, making it easy to spread, because it could infect any soil the waste comes in contact to. A plant could grow there, and get infected by it, eventually spreading to a herbivore. A carnivore would eventually eat the animal, and get it as well. As you can see, BX is a seriously dangerous Virus. On Joshua's Character Joshua's character is unique, and complex. He is not a stereotype, nor a character designed to defy stereotype characters. To understand him, you must understand what he is not. When Josh is first met in chapter one, we assume he is a Mad Max-like character. However, he is not troubled by his past, but his present. Then we start to understand who he is. Some would start to assume he is a type of survivor character, like in a Zombie movie. Although I will say that he is '''a survivor character, but not the rough-and-tumble type. As we keep going, we may start to see him as the a cliche. A lone survivor, who is a extreme warrior, and hero. He is neither. To explain, we must see Joshua as something new, but also old. He represents Human will, and determination. You see, Joshua is not just a nobody, because he is his own person. I designed him to be like many types of people, not just one. He isn't the survivor, who makes many mistakes, or the hero, who does everything right. Josh is resilient, and in the story, he will do everything he can to survive. I made him to embody Human strength, and the will to survive. He is just like you and me though: a person. Not a hero, not a stereotype, but a unique person, of which we can all identify with. On The Lakewood Massacre Chapter 9. Gruesome, sickening, and most mysterious. In Lakewood, Joshua and Ember stumbled upon a massacre of bodies. The story behind it, is told in the tale, The Cage: A Malchom's Woods Story. But I will go over what happened here, in minimum detail. You see, a group of Lakewood residents, were left behind in the small town, by reasons unknown. They live here peacefully, until they were attacked by a pack of Allosaurus. A young man, Timothy Hayson, managed to kill the alpha female, but died in the process. Sadly, everyone else died from the attack as well. During the last few months there, the residents were suffering from low food supply, low water supply, and the pack of twenty Allosaurs. The place they lived in, was called, "The Cage". It was made of fences, and surrounded a few houses. The Cage protected them for some time, but it seems that it didn't hold up long enough. This truly was a sad event. On Bengal, And Ember's Part In The I.B.R.I.S Project Ember the Velociraptor was a male among females, with the exception of Bengal. His purpose of him and Bengal being males, is no doubt unknown to readers. However, I have the answer... When Wu was still working for InGen, under the control of Masrani, he made the choice to clone two males, and two females. The reason being that he wanted to study the mating habits of Velociraptors: What were their courting sessions like? How long did they last? and, more importantly, How did the pair, or pairs take care of their youth. Ember was originally assigned to Delta, but she rejected him, for reasons unknown, and he never had any mate. so the purpose was to study the male/female interactions of the raptor clones. On The Meaning Of Malchom's Woods MW is, whether you like it or not, colorful; Each chapter is ever so slightly different, like the colors of the rainbow. The tale is a dramatic, action-adventure, techno-thriller, with horror, sci-fi, and mystery mixed in. And within that, a '''lot of Biblical subtext, with scientific as well as historical explanations. But, most readers may not understand what it is about. What's the meaning? What is the deeper moral, and lesson? It may not be obvious, but it has more than one. I will go over them here, and the most important one, and the one that the story is presenting the most plainly, is that man should never control Nature with ignorance, but we should try to coexist with it. 1. Man and Nature's frayed bonds Many views exist about the origin of man. The largest, being the Monotheistic/Creationist view, shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and other various religions, who believe the universe was created by God, or by a pantheon of gods. The next being the Evolutionary view, stating man that came from Simians that lived in the plains of Africa, who eventually, over a span of two million years, stood upright, and developed skills like no other life form. I am of the first group, specifically the most former of them I mentioned. The reason I state this, is because of the concept of Man and Nature. Michael Crichton, the creator of the JP universe, made the first novel to be about Man and Nature in conflict, because man tries to screw around with the other force. No matter which view you come from, the two groups used to be together, in harmony. But, over time, a schism occurred, and the two forces split. In the first novel, we see that we should never mess with Nature, but Malchom's Woods says: we should never mess with it, but should try to heal the tear, as some are today. The bond between Owen Grady, and Blue is a parallel to Joshua and Ember. However, it's more of a bond for survival, yet still a bond of care for one another. It started out with each of them thinking they were controlling one another, but in fact, they had no control. They just thought they did. And, over time, they seen themselves as companions, like in a pack. Ember is Nature, and Joshua Malchom is Man. We destroy Nature, burning forests, killing animals that are almost extinct, and finally, tamper with their own genetics. But within this, Man and Nature can exist, like we once did, without the problems we seem to have today. No, animal attacks will never stop. No the planet will not stop being used for our use, but we can exist together in a harmony, that is bittersweet. I will get to the Bittersweet part next... 2. Life is like bittersweet chocolate Let me ask you this: how's your life? You may say it's doing well, but other's may say that it is going bad. But the answers giving are right, but not for long. The reason being, that everything in life is bittersweet i.e. Everything goes wrong, but it always turns right, or vice versa. You see, Your life may be going very well, but something bad will follow. It can not be changed, at least, not until death. In the Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, the writer states this in chapter 3, verses 1. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under Heaven." After this, the writer(who is believed to be a man named Koheleth The Preacher(A pen-name for King Solomon), who was the son of King David of Israel), goes through a list of times, stating that there is, "A time to be born, and a time to die", "And a time for war, and a time for peace". What it is being stated here, is that there is a time for good, and bad. And that after a good time, sorrows will always follow. This is a very consistent theme throughout the tale, and it even is recognized by the main character, and a song in the story, called Bittersweet, plays in chapter 11. The basic moral is that no matter how bad things get, they will get better. And, though things are perfect, you must be ready for the troubles just ahead of you; Just ahead on you timeline called life. 3. Being stubborn can be good, or bad Joshua Malchom, is stubborn. So stubborn, that he stayed in Glen Rose, even though it may have cost him his life. Even so, it almost did, more times than once. Being stubborn can land you in trouble, but being so can keep you alive. On his road trip of terror, he encounters many things, that, could discourage him from going on. There were many points where he could have just stopped, and stayed where his feet were at. Edward Stevenson is the one to make this clear to him. The old man tells him that he doesn't have to go on. Chances were, he was going to bite the desert dust. This is the least important moral of the three, but it is still, a moral: you should always choose when to be stubborn at the right times. In the case of Glen Rose, he never would have dealt with the journey, and the tale would never have been. And in the case of Edward, if he had stayed there, he may have missed the chance for even better. Conclusion I believe we can all see that MW is much more than a fun fan fiction. I never planned it to be that way, though. I just wanted to make a movie, but I couldn't. And then, I wanted to write a short book to see if everyone liked the idea. Sure enough, they did. I never intended for the deep messages to exist. All this time later, I '''never '''in my most insane dreams thought that I would be the author of one of the biggest Jurassic Park fan stories to ever be published. All of this, came from the fans, and I thank you all for reading Malchom's Woods: A Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Sequel... Category:Malchom's Woods page Category:Malchom's Woods Series page